Subscribed!
by VictoriousPeople
Summary: - How his five minutes of killing time on kishimotion-dot-net had turned into hours of stalking Yamanaka Ino's beauty and lifestyle channel was beyond him. One-Shot. Modern-day AU. *07/16/14: Sequel up - 'Recommended'


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If Uchiha Sasuke could assign a color to the word 'annoying' it would be pink. Not any kind of pink, mind you. A light, transparent pink - something like the color of a shy blush under strikingly green eyes. Or a pale pastel pink, the color of young cherry blossoms; sweet and -

"A makeup tutorial? Really?"

"Suigetsu."

- definitely annoying.

"I didn't know you were that kind of guy, Sasu-chan!"

"Get out!"

To Sasuke's surprise his roommate left the bedroom without putting up a childish fight like he usually did, and for a brief moment Sasuke wondered if something was wrong with his friend. Thinking it was probably something Suigetsu had to figure out on his own, Sasuke shifted his gaze away from the shut door and to the laptop on his knees.

_Now, let's add some color to the lips!_

Concealed by the cold light of the laptop monitor, a faint blush made its way onto Sasuke's cheeks as he watched long, dainty fingers apply liquid rouge to delicate lips.

_Red lips can be tricky so it's safer to start from the center, gradually expanding outward._

The video's background music changed to a sickly sweet, bubblegum pop kind of song Sasuke instantly recognized and frowned at. He didn't know who performed it, or what it was about, but it was a song he learned to hate over the past few months as it became the national anthem of the Room Next Door – population Karin and her twelve bottles of Channel No. 5.

_And…We are…Done!_

The pink haired girl on the screen broke out into the most enchanting smile she could manage, and Sasuke paused the video trying to gather his wits. How his five minutes of killing time on kishimotion-dot-net had turned into hours of stalking Yamanaka Ino's beauty and lifestyle channel was beyond him.

It started out innocent enough, really – with his best friend from Konoha being the idiot he is and a flash of pink in the comments section below.

"If you need some lipstick," Sasuke heard Suigetsu shout from behind the door, "I think Karin has a spare one."

Grabbing the pillows to his right and left – just in case Hozuki dared to enter again – Sasuke shouted back, "Fuck off and watch 'My Noncommittal Crony' you fanboy."

The door creaked open just enough for the tip of Suigetsu's nose to peek through.

"Kinship is tragic, bro", he whispered and closed the door just in time to avoid his nose getting hit by a navy blue pillow.

"I watch it for the plot!"

"Yeah, and Karin is a member of the Otogakure Swim Club for the intellectual conversations."

The door burst open again and in the blink of an eye Suigetsu appeared in front of Sasuke, distressed and fidgeting.

"You don't think she's been hanging out with Hoshigaki?"

"He's the captain, she's the manager. Go figure" Sasuke said with a shrug. Truth be told he didn't think that Karin had a thing for the captain, but he enjoyed seeing his roommate all riled up. Not that he would ever admit that.

"That's it bro," Suigetsu said rolling up the sleeves of his purple turtleneck, "I'll join that fucking swim club, just watch me."

With a final huff of annoyance Suigetsu left the room, slamming the door shut. Sasuke let the remaining pillow drop from his right hand, not really caring where it landed, and shifted his attention back to the black screen in front of him. A quick swipe of his index finger across the touchpad was enough for the laptop to buzz back to life, and Sasuke looked away from the pink haired girl he knew would be on the screen, beautiful and smiling as if she didn't have a care in the world. Having decided that he had watched enough makeup tutorials for one day, he clicked on Yamanaka Ino's cheery face below the video and waited for his browser to open YamanakaHana – _Konoha's most-subscribed beauty and lifestyle channel; new videos every Wednesday! _

Browsing through the 'HanaLikes' playlist he found the video that had landed him on Yamanaka's channel in the first place. Clicking on the obnoxiously orange thumbnail, he turned down the volume – something he should've done the first time he watched said video – and leaned against the head of his bed.

_Hey people! Today I'm taking the ALS ice bucket challenge to a whole new level, dattebayo! So stay with me as I write history in my own backyard! This is Uzumaki Naruto and you're watching OrangeNarutomaki!_

Naruto's mischievous face and golden blonde hair made way to a poorly animated intro as the beat from Killer B's new single 'Beezus' pounded through the speakers and infiltrated Sasuke's ears. He, in return, ground his teeth in discontent. It was no secret that he wasn't exactly Killer B's fan, and he never understood the Dobe's fascination with the rapper. For a moment he wondered how long it would take for the video to be taken down due to copyright infringement, but his attention was soon drawn to his best friend clad in orange training jammers.

_I was tagged by Lee and Gai from BlossomsOfYouth so, thanks to them! Like I said, I'll be doing this a little differently, so instead of the ice bucket challenge, I'll be doing the ice pool challenge! And just in case I pass out at the end of the video, I am now going to tag Troublesome22, CalorieControl and YamnakaHana. You have 24 hours to complete the challenge and donate, good luck! _

Whoever was filming took a couple of steps back and gasped as Naruto put on a pair of orange swimming goggles, and Sasuke started to massage his temples for he knew what would happen next. A children's inflatable pool – also orange – filled with enough ice water to throw the blond idiot into a state of life threatening hypothermia came into view as Naruto zeroed in on it with high speed yelling his signature childish catchphrase. A hysterical 'Bro' – undoubtedly the voice of Inuzuka Kiba – could be heard between fits of giggles, and laughter that boomed behind the camera.

Sasuke sighed as his friend barely missed the pool and landed face first in dirt, and he rolled his eyes at Sarutobi Konohamaru – a brat who held an uncanny resemblance to the Dobe in terms of recklessness and idiocy – who appeared behind the pool and lifted it up, spilling its contents on Naruto.

_Bro, you okay?_

The laughter that had served as background noise throughout the whole odreal died down as the blond man remained unmoving in a puddle of mud.

_Oh my God, someone help him!_

A girl with long, dark hair and pale irises – Hinata of the Hyuuga clan if Sasuke remembered correctly – dashed to Naruto's side with a big orange towel in tow. A minute of thick silence and dry-toweling hair later, the Dobe stepped in front of the camera, his face red – whether from connecting with the ground or embarrassment, Sasuke couldn't tell.

_Challenge completed successfully, 'ttebayo! _

Tan lips stretched out into a bashful grin and an equally tan hand ruffled up spiky, blond hair.

_As fun as this challenge is, we shouldn't forget why it exists in the first place: To raise awareness about the Lou Ga…Gahri –_

_- Gehrig's –_

_- thanks Hinata; the Lou Gehrig's disease! I've decided that I'll be donating one hundred bucks for every 100,000 views this video gets, so please share this video with your friends and –_

_- Na- Naruto, I don't think –_

_- Oh come on, Hinata! What could possibly go wrong? _

The video ended with another of Killer B's songs and Sasuke cringed at the cheesy verses. He looked at the video's view count and snorted – admittedly a very un-Sasuke-like thing to do, but he was alone and therefore didn't care. The Dobe had gathered over five million views over the past week and at least thirty of them were Sasuke's.

It was odd really, the feeling of nostalgia that overwhelmed him every time he watched Naruto's video. The giggles and laughter, the Dobe's recklessness and bright blue eyes stirred up a curious amalgam of emotions; heartache and jealousy he didn't know were there. He didn't like it, but he still couldn't stop himself from watching the video over and over again, and he was convinced he had to be some kind of a masochist.

Sasuke knew it was the right decision to leave his old hometown, but he couldn't stop the unpleasant 'what ifs' from invading his mind. Every time he had to remind himself that staying in Konoha meant staying in his older brother's shadow, and although he loved Itachi to pieces he just couldn't take being constantly compared to him, or being looked down upon because he would never be as good as Itachi. Or as intelligent as Itachi. Or as kind as Itachi. Or -

Sasuke shook his head to dispel the miserable thoughts and scrolled through the comments section, quickly finding the familiar flash of pink he was looking for. A small, boyish smile graced his lips.

* * *

_ HaruNoSakura__ [premium member]_

_ Do tell us Naruto, how does it feel going viral and broke at the same time?_

* * *

He clicked on the small avatar next to her user name and waited for her channel to load. Despite never having uploaded a video herself, her channel was littered with thumbnails of videos she appeared in, most of them being from YamanakaHana. He browsed through the videos trying to find one he didn't watch yet and couldn't help but feel like a creep. He knew her life was none of his business but he wanted to see how she was doing. Sakura was one of his biggest 'what ifs' after all.

What if he had stayed? Would they be together by now? He knew that Sakura had loved him back then; she had confessed to him after all, but what about him? He had cared about her – still does for some unexplainable reason – more than about any other person besides his family; he cared more than he liked to admit. But could he love her like she deserved? Sasuke sighed and leaned his head against the bed's headboard. _Maybe_, he thought. If he had stayed he would've eventually learned to love her.

Bringing up his left hand he raked through his hair rather forcefully and frowned. Thinking about 'what could've beens' did him no good. He didn't plan on returning to Konoha and Sakura was surely over him, so what's the use.

His life was much easier before Naruto's video went viral.

A small purple bubble popped up at the lower right corner of the laptop screen catching Sasuke's attention. He had seen it before; it was a feature more popular channels used to announce new videos to their subscribers, but he didn't remember seeing a purple one before. Biting down on his lower lip he clicked on it and watched as it expanded into a small audio-player.

_Happy Monday lovelies_, came Yamaka Ino's cheery voice,_ I know it's not Wednesday, but I wanted to share a new video with you, check it out on my channel! _

Sasuke didn't remember subscribing to Ino's channel, but he opened up its page anyway.

"Onigiri Fail featuring PainTool and HaruNoSakura" he mumbled as he clicked on the video's thumbnail.

_Hello lovelies! Today I'm making rice balls with my two best friends who are also culinary challenged! Yay! Please welcome Sai and Sakura –_

_- Joke's on you Pig, rice balls are my specialty –_

_- Ugly, you can't even boil water for tea._

Ten seconds into the video and by the way Sakura was squeezing the life out of the poor rice ball in her hands Sasuke could already tell that she wasn't very fond of 'PainTool' who - to Sasuke's annoyance – looked like an eerie doppelganger of his, save for the hair.

Minutes passed and the trio made rice ball after rice ball chatting away happily, and not for the first time in the past few days did Sasuke wonder how much Sakura had changed. In videos like this she appeared to be more mature than the last time he saw her. She seemed calmer, stronger, more beautiful, and definitely less of the helpless girl who had always sought out his help. Not that he minded it, in fact being needed by someone was nice every once in a while.

_Your rice balls do look the most appealing; I'll give you that, Ugly. Tell me your secret._

_I just practiced a lot when I was younger -_

_- Could it be that you used to make them for that Bastard who left Konoha?_

_So he knows_, Sasuke thought and watched as Sakura threw on a fake smile. Even back then he had disliked it when she did that; he preferred her genuine, heartwarming smiles. And now he disliked that Sai guy as well.

He remembered Sakura making countless bentos for him while they were in middle school, and he knew that she had practiced cooking a lot back then. The Dobe used to get ungodly jealous whenever Sasuke received food from the pink haired girl, which in turn inflated the black haired boy's ego. He liked to think that _that_ was the reason he liked Sakura's food so much, and not the fact that he liked _her_.

_You still think about him, don't you-_

_- You're right Sai_, _I do._ _And now please do me a favor_, Sakura said voice dripping with artificial sweetness, _try one of my rice balls._

_I'd lo -_

Sasuke winced as Ino burst out laughing - a high pitched sound which ripped through his poor speakers - and an agitated Sakura stormed out of view, mumbling something under her breath. He smirked as the camera zoomed in on Sai's face, rice ball in mouth and eyes widened in mock astonishment.

_How does it taste Sai_, Ino asked wiping away small tears of mirth.

_Like love unrequited and -_

_- Okay_ _Lovelies, what do you think? What do Sakura's rice balls taste like? Let us know in the comments below! See you next Hana time!_

Not wanting to know which girly tune Yamanaka had chosen for her outro this time, Sasuke had paused the video and scrolled down to the comments section where a flash of pink had caught his attention – again.

* * *

_ PainTool__ [free member]_

_ +HaruNoSakura__ I didn't think it was possible, but you are saltier than your rice balls!_

* * *

_ HaruNoSakura__ [premium member]_

_ +PainTool__ Ooh nice insult, did you get it at the thrift shop?_

* * *

_ PainTool__ [free member]_

_ +HaruNoSakura__ Yeah, it was pretty cheap, like the taste of your cooking._

* * *

Sasuke rolled his eyes at the childish exchange and read on as most of his middle school friends joined the conversation. _They are annoying as ever_, he thought and skipped Naruto's long rant about the excellence of Sakura's cooking.

* * *

_ HaruNoSakura__ [premium member]_

_ +PainTool __Look, I don't care! My rice balls taste wonderful, got it? Now get lost!_

* * *

_ PainTool__ [free member]_

_ +HaruNoSakura __Find me one person who likes them besides +__OrangeNarutomaki_

* * *

_ YamanakaHana__ [premium member]_

_ +PainTool +__HaruNoSakura__ Stop being annoying, you're disturbing my viewers!_

* * *

_ PainTool__ [free member]_

_ +YamanakaHana__ Not stopping until she finds me someone who likes her food!_

* * *

_ HaruNoSakura__ [premium member]_

_ +PainTool__ Don't you worry, I will!_

* * *

_ YamanakaHana__ [premium member]_

_ +PainTool +__HaruNoSakura__ ANNOYING BITHCES GET OUT!_

* * *

If Uchiha Sasuke could assign a color to the word 'annoying' it would definitely be pink. Not any kind of pink, mind you. The sun-kissed pink of Haruno Sakura's hair, or the lovely pink of her lips - that kind of pink. But as annoying as that kind of pink could be, Sasuke couldn't help but wonder how it would look against his navy blue shirt or how it would feel like waking up to it.

* * *

_ Uchihawk__ [premium member]_

_ +PainTool__ I like her food._

* * *

**a/n: **I seriously don't know what I was trying to accomplish here. Writing Sauce's POV just isn't my thing. Thanks for reading!


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